Are you looking for ways to improve your B2B inbound marketing? Whether you’re debating which inbound marketing services to use, or how to fine tune your inbound marketing approach, these 10 tricks can help you reach that goal.
Instead of fighting for attention amidst the annoying noise of banner ads and other push marketing techniques, B2B inbound marketing brings potential customers to you. Visitors are attracted to your content; engage and become leads; are nurtured and become customers — and even fanswho promote your business to others.
Hubspot put it nicely when they said: “Inbound marketing focuses on creating quality content that pulls people toward your company and product, where they naturally want to be.”
Inbound marketing services may include:
Blog posts
Ebooks
Slideshares
Infographics
Videos
The following are well-developed tricks of the trade that you or your inbound marketing agency can leverage to transform leads into customers.
B2B Inbound Marketing Tricks to Keep Up Your Sleeve
1. Create Long-Form Content
Long-form content is a time investment, but it is time well spent. Not every business takes the time to create these longer pieces of content, so it makes you stand out! These in-depth posts give you more sharable content, proof of authority, and engagement with your company.
Whether it’s a 3,000-word blog post or eBook, long-form content gives your readers the in-depth information that they need. It causes someone to take a second or even third look. When it comes time to buy, the prospect is more likely to remember you and your helpful content.
2. Pump Up Your “Thank You” Page
If they’re on this page, you’ve got them! But now is not the time to sit back and pat yourself on the back. You have to strike while the iron is hot — seal the deal by keeping them engaged.
They’re already sold on your product — your job now is to build on that satisfaction. A Thank You Page helps you do just that. It shows your gratitude and eagerness to please, but also can motivate further purchases.
Don’t create dead ends. A plain-old, boring white page with a single line of “Thank you for buying our product” goes nowhere.
Instead lead someone further down the buying path. This may include:
Related articles
A “now what” section that shows some easy-to-take next steps
Clever graphics and captivating colors
An FAQ section or articles tailored to their needs at this stage
Promotions for additional products
3. Optimize Your Already Popular Content
You no doubt have posts that have already hit it out of the park. Don’t let them fester in the great vault of internet has-beens. Bring them back to life with renewed vigor!
Identify which posts have given you the most traffic over the years, and optimize them. Give them a new look, newly focused messaging, and new CTAs. Then let them loose to bring you a higher conversion rate with fresh prospects.
(Click here to learn how to energize your B2B content marketing.)
4. Offer Them an Upgrade (Of Content)
We’re all familiar with CTAs that offer a free ebook or pdf file in exchange for email leads. Yet, if this offer is unrelated to your post, it’s not likely to score with readers. If you align your offer with the content your prospect is already absorbed in, you’ll see more leads.
For example, say you’re a security company offering systems to small businesses. You may start out with a post that addresses your audience’s concerns, such as 6 Crucial Questions Every Business Should Ask Their Security Company. If people are reading this, it’s likely they are actively worried about their business’s security. An eBook offer entitled The Ultimate List of Security Measures You Need to Take to Protect Your Business would build on that interest, and is more likely to result in conversions.
5. Transform Your FAQs Into Engaging Posts
These posts practically write themselves and are satisfying content for prospective and current clients. I bet your experience with customers has taught you what questions people ask at each stage of the purchasing process. If you aren’t sure, reach out to other members of your team to find out what’s being asked.
Write an informative and in-depth post on all facets of each question. It will gratify your readers that their questions are addressed so thoroughly, and they may click through to learn more about your business.
6. Recycle Content Into Other Media
It’s time to step out of the strictly blog post box and explore other effective forms of content. Not everyone has the time or inclination to sit down and read a blog post. You will grow your audience (and authority) by creating different forms of media that appeal to a more varied group of people.
Each piece of content drives them one step closer to conversion, and gives them a reason to stay engaged. –Nick Stamoulis 
The majority of people today prefer visual content. Video is especially dominating the internet right now — and you too can get a piece of the action. It’s never been easier to create stunning video content. Video creation tools, such as Wistia or Powtoon, make it incredibly simple to make and share videos that will boost your B2B marketing.
(Click here to find out 3 ways to use video in your content marketing strategy.)
Other successful forms of visual content include images, infographics, and SlideShares.
7. Collaborate With Influencers
B2B influencer marketing is a hot topic right now. Who is an expert in your industry? Seek them out on social media and at industry events. Use your mutual industry interest to create a relationship. As that relationship grows, collaboration can take place.
Having your name associated with a well-respected industry influencer will mean brand exposure and a boost to your own authority.
(For more ways to position yourself as a B2B thought leader, click here.)
8. Curate Viral Content
Tired of the constant content crunching? We’re going to let you in on a little secret… you can take a little break, and no one has to know. How? Curate! Curated content can be a powerful boost to your inbound marketing without the exhaustive effort.
Curated content enables you to give new life to existing content through good categorization and referencing.. – Heidi Cohen 
Gather a list of top posts in your subject purview, and leverage these in an informative and helpful post of your own. Include descriptions of why each post made the cut. You could do something along these lines:
5 Edgiest Tech Blogs From This Week
Top 3 Social Media Posts From The Tech World
7 Most Informative Tech Blogs From This Year
You will gain traffic, authority, and conversions — with very little effort. You’ve earned it!
(Click here to learn about crucial steps to attain content marketing success.)
9. Improve Page Load Times and Speeds
People don’t give page load times a second thought — until they’re too slow! Don’t underestimate the role page load time can have in your B2B inbound marketing. This might seem like a negligible detail, but it may cause your readers to give up and go to another page (and company) that loads faster.
Consumers simply don’t want to wait for information that may or may not be what they are looking for. — Casie Gillette
This doesn’t only affect how potential customers view your company. Slow page load times also influence your ranking in search engines. Faster load times equal higher spots on SERPs — a major score for your business!
10. Pamper Your Leads Before You Pitch a Product
It takes a lot of time and effort to get a lead. Don’t waste it by acting too fast. Follow what some marketing experts refer to as the rule of seven — have at least seven helpful interactions with a lead before you attempt to sell a product or service. Make these interactions meaningful and all about the lead — allay their concerns, answer their questions, and provide helpful advice.
It’s an investment of time — yours — but it will pay off. Prepare in advance several helpful interactions that will leave positive memories associated with your business. When you finally introduce your product, they’ll be more receptive.
(To find out how you can combine PR and inbound marketing to improve leads, click here.)
Your team or your B2B inbound marketing agency can use these and similar tricks to effectively develop those hard-earned leads into dedicated customers who, in turn, promote your business to others.